Whats the best cooking tomato?

[northepaul]

I know, I know
Its abit like asking how long is a piece of string.
Here's the story: This year is my first year of growing toms, and am already thinking about next year's crop. This year I grew cherries, (sungold & black cherry) regular toms (ailsa craig) beef (black russian) and cookers (roma)

Next year I want to abandon the beef and do more cookers but the roma ones I did this year were disappointing - the plants kept escaping had some blossom end rot (I add none of my other ones had it) and ended up with approx 7 quite small plums. Not a good use of space.
So please could someone with knowledge of cooking toms give me some advice? I would prefer a cordon and they need to be fairly prolific.

Any advice welcome

[maytreefrannie]

I think Brandywine are good for cooking.

Also I've been told that the Italian type Marnande (I think that's what it's called, it's bell-shaped) is excellent for cooking and is often favoured for tomato sauce. I've made some sauce this year but used a mixture of whatever was ripe.

[zazen999]

I just use whatever is ripe to be honest; I've had my time of waiting patiently for the proper sauce toms to ripen only for them to get blight - so I cook whatever I've got and put it though a metal sieve thing [not sure of the name] and then reduce the remaining mush to the consistency I want it then use it.

Made a nice pizza base topping this way last week

[taff]

plums seem to be the best ones for sauces, or any tomato that has more pulp than seeds.
[the plum ones seem a lot better grown as a bush rather than cordon so you may want to disregard them entirely and go for beefsteak types - costolutos fit the bill for less seed more pulp]

[sneezer2]

I've just finished a big pot of pasta sauce and it is delicious. I've used what I have
which include Marmande, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Purple, Malakhitovaya Shkatulka
Persimmon and Lemon Boy. This particular batch has a lot of Marmande and some
Persimmon. It's my first year growing Marmande and I have to say that, though I
like it, it's a bit bland. The cooking worked fine though and the Persimmon, being
highly flavored, added some oomph, as would the Cherokees or Malakhitovaya. In my
opinion you use what you have. The better you like it eaten raw, the better you will
like it cooked. I never worry about the seeds as my sauce is simmered long enough
that they break down anyway.

[womble]

It's an interesting question and one I myself have been pondering lately.
I always throw whatever I have into the mix, but some aren't very good for sauces, being very juicy, which makes a watery sauce.
I've used purple ukraine for sauces last year and they work well, but I don't like the way they ripen, difficult to get them at the right stage.
Last year I grew san mazano and had problems with BER, won't grow those again.
This year I am growing roma and although I just about have a worthwhile crop per plant, they are unruly and I think it's a difficult plant to grow well.

I'm starting to think that Ferline is a good all rounder, eats well, grows well and seems to have the right texture and juicyness to make decent sauce.

I don't sieve my sauces, I like the bits and lumpyness, I used to liquidize them, but I don't like them like that now. I certainly don't worry about seeds being in it and Ferline doesn't seen that bad for them anyway.

This year I am putting ferline, roma (only a couple atm), tigerella and gardeners delight into my sauces.
Really GD and tigerella are too juicy and fiddly to put into them and are better eaten fresh.

[northepaul]

Thanks guys, thats great (if you'll excuse the pun) food for thought.

[SarzWix]

Amish Paste from The Real Seed Co. They aren't uniform in size or shape (some are plum shape, some are like massive cooking apples) but they're meaty and tasty and cook down well. I've grown them for 3 years and they haven't let me down yet
Having said that, I do tend to cook with whatever toms I have ready including Shirleys, Sungolds and mini Purple Plums

[northepaul]

Amish Paste from The Real Seed Co. They aren't uniform in size or shape (some are plum shape, some are like massive cooking apples) but they're meaty and tasty and cook down well. I've grown them for 3 years and they haven't let me down yet
Having said that, I do tend to cook with whatever toms I have ready including Shirleys, Sungolds and mini Purple Plums

Ooh thanks Sarah. I noticed that someone in my seed saving circle is saving amish paste

[coreopsis]

I remember last year a lot of folks were growing San Marzano-recommended as cooking tomato.Does anybody grow it this year?I went for early varieties(due to location)and will be happy to throw any red toms into the pot(I'm not fussy).
Out of the varieties I have I think just one is classified as cooking tomato-Aurora,but it still green so can't say how it tastes.

[taff]

I'm growing san marzanos. Haven't had enough ripe ones yet to make a sauce, but I'm quietly intrigued by another variety, they seem to a be a giant plum, from my aunties seeds last year, so I have no idea what variety they are, but i will be saving seed from them for swapping.

[womble]

How well and quickly does Amish paste grow? Is it just as fast as mainstream varieties to ripen?
I worry about growing the big tomatoes because of blight and the fact they normally take longer to ripen, making them more susceptible.

[SarzWix]

I dunno Womble, I grow them in a greenhouse, so if you're talking about outdoors, I don't have that experience. Sorry

[womble]

In a greenhouse info will be fine thanks.

[SarzWix]

Oh, well, I've never had blight in the greenhouse, and these plants are usually nearest the door. In fact, I had blight on potatoes in a bed next to the greenhouse last year and they still didn't get struck down. They've been a bit slow to ripen this year, but then so have all my toms for some reason. They're keeping pace with the Shirleys and ripening faster than the Purple Ukraine (which I won't be growing next year!).